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Daily Archives: January 4, 2015

My design, is meant to present to it’s user some of the lesser known facts about war, to give the users an understand of some of the underlying facts and patterns that seem to occur with media manipulation of the public and their understanding of the war. I found it difficult to find the relevant information because it is obviously sparsely available so my research stage of the content was very important as I was relying on the content for the shock factor of my design.

I organised the design into three separate sections, budget, economy & deaths. With the budget, I found the overall military budget, then worked out what it was spent on, the next step was to work out what it could have been spent on instead to improve the world. I did this using a variety of different resources and you can find the full list on my blog post titled “FACTS ABOUT IRAQ WAR”. Afterwards I focused on how the war effected the economy, how much money was made from the war, therefore I looked at how the money was spent within the US and how much money they were able to make from oil pipelines in Iraq. Finally, I researched the amount of people that were killed in the war, what ‘side’ they were on and how that compared to the ‘acts of terror’ that are presented to us as the reasons why we started the war in the first place.

For me, the most important aspect of the design was to make sure the content was laid out in such a way it made a massive impact on the user, creating an interest in the experience of learning new information about the war. I used information I had gathered from previous research into creating a fluid experience that was both powerful yet simple. I considered the fact that the information was biased against media and government but at the same time, this could be due to the reason this information is not widely spread by the media or governments. This is similar to Charlie Hamilton James’ http://www.digitalrainforest.co.uk website because he presents information about the rainforest he bought and then pushes his bias opinion based upon his findings while he was there. At the time I felt the way he had presented the call to action was very motivational as it connects directly to the viewer directly.

Having applied some psychology to my design I have learnt that I needed the content to begin with that will have a large impact on the user, then I need to build up around that. The design should emphasise on the shocking facts that I present to the viewer, which is why I have opted for a subtle flat colour design with as little imagery as possible. This means that the viewer has no distractions and is focused entirely on the content, the only images I have on the design are subtle icons which which allow the user to visualise what the text is about, and faded images that blend in the background to emphasise a certain meaning. This can be said, among others, about the economy, deaths and ticket purchase sections.

The design takes the user through different areas, the budget, economy and deaths and then asks them a rhetorical question “Who really provokes war on terror?” makes them aware of the exhibitions and then allows them to buy tickets directly on the page without leaving and then also shows them how they can get involved with the campaign directly without even buying tickets. I understand that a certain percentage of my target audience would disagree with the facts because they basically state that everything they knows about war and terrorism to be wrong. This could be advantagous though as it allows me to get a bigger response from the people who aren’t interested in the exhibition and they would maybe help to create awareness by claiming it as outrageous and create a potential uproar in the media, which would make people speculate on the facts, in turn leading to a successful exhibition, which is the point of the site.

Creating my design using InVision, a live prototyping tool was very useful as it allowed my design to appear just like a functional site. Having designed the site to be the best of my ability, I didn’t feel by simply show the images did it justice, therefore I exported every possible combination of my design which came to a total of 19 because of the amount of different sections. I then used ‘hotspots’ to link certain parts of the image to another image, therefore, I have created a prototype of my design which is usable and ready to show to clients. Once I had got to this stage, it allowed me to discover issues that I had not found previously, firstly the text is not bold on the “Fluorescent Lightbulbs” in the peace side of the budget section.

Secondly when you scroll through the 10 most profitable companies in the US, I have missed the logo from number 5.

These are two small issues that I could easily go back to resolved. In line with simpleness the section in which you would purchase tickets works really well, but it doesn’t allow the user to confirm the price or ticket amount just after putting their card details in, this would maybe make a better experience for the user.

This also meant I was able to view the site from mobile devices on the web. I have been able to see a couple of instances where the design doesn’t work and may have to be re-imagined for mobile devices. The first example of this is the contrast of text over images, because the screen size is smaller and the text only slightly darker than the background image, it becomes a little harder to read.You can see this here;

Another mobile issue is the size of the buttons are a little too small to press on the mobile version, therefore would become a usability issue for the user, and would take away from the overall experience. You can see this here;

The actual working prototype is available here for your viewing pleasure;